Life Is A Highway… I’m Gonna Ride It All Night Long

Yeah, it is. I can’t believe we’re into March 2010. You know, “into” March… beyond the first week of any given month and you’re “into” the month.

Life has been a whirlwind for me lately and I’m lost in how much I’m in love with it right now. Seriously, folks. You’re reading the words from a girl who sincerely was feeling like there were lots of things that would never change, never get better, never get worse, just sit here spending the rest of my life in this stagnant chain of events from day to day. I’m here to tell you, brag, scream from the rooftops that my “day to day” has been nothing short of amazing and wonderful the past couple weeks.

First, I’m in love. Yes, for all of you who know me at all, it’s a miracle, but I’m here. The Facebook status has been changed an e’rything! I won’t get into details, but my inner Disney princess has finally experienced the singing birds and fireworks, and damn, it’s good.

Work stuff has been wonderful and abundant, and there’s more around every city block corner I reach. I couldn’t be more grateful and honored that after four and a half years of putting my heart and soul into what I’m doing, it’s paying off. (More to come on this front later…)

I’m just really happy. All of the stars have aligned, and I’m rockin’ my world. It’s honestly the best feeling ever, and honestly – I can’t put it into words that really get the message across other than that.

So, with all this bliss, I’ve been inspired. (Funny how that works, eh?) I’ve got all these things I’m thinking I want to do RIGHT NOW like get back into painting, (re)start up a couple of my old blogs, sort through old clothes and donate them to GoodWill, you name it. It’s like crack for motivation, this happiness thing.

One of the things I discovered this morning while making my rounds online, was that I missed the announcement about Dooce heading to HGTV. (Yeah, she posted it in freakin’ January. See what I mean about the whole not believing we’re “into” March already? Yep.) Can this woman fail? I’m so super proud of her, you know? She’s making a mint off of being herself, and getting all kinds of publicity and appearances and all that for the past couple years, and now she’s hooked up with one of my favorite networks! You can check out what she’s doing over there with the blog stuff, but I’m truly wondering what all else is to come for this kickass chick, you know?

I’ve always had this deep-seated desire to have a fabulous personal blog. I’ve been blogging since before they called it that, and have had all sorts of niches and topics that I’ve tried to focus on, but the bottom line is that as a complex (complicated?) individual, sometimes there are just things I want to write about, that I want people to come along and say “Hey! That’s what I was thinking!” to, and that will make me just this uber-cool “girly web geek” that I keep claiming to be.

At one point, I tried my hand at having at least 8 blogs going at once. Like, duh. Right? Stoopid.

At another time, I considered starting up a blog network of sorts. I’ve recently let all the domains go to “poop”. (Yep, canceled the auto-renew. When they’re free, they’re free – have at it kiddies. Just credit me for the idea if you take it, mmkaythanksbai.)

Given that things have become so busy with work stuff, and I’ve got a steady stream of “regulars” that I’m beyond happy with, I’ve recently been considering taking Ginkgo Consulting to a strictly consulting basis. At least for the time being. Essentially making me a sort of “coach” in many ways. Rather than doing the dirty work myself, I’ll help outline the list of tasks and develop a plan to help launch people’s online businesses and blogs. This should open me up for more speaking gigs (something that the inner-five-year-old-wannabe-actress in me just thrives on) and give me more time to be selfish with my to-do list.

So there’s lots of planning and timing and scheduling going on in my world, as there often is. But the best part about all of this is that I’m finally LOVING it. It doesn’t feel daunting, doesn’t feel like a “dirty job”, and every single thing I do or think about when it comes to my future is exciting and wonderful and amazing.

I think I’m finally on the right highway.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

Some days, when the whole world is crashing down on your head and you’re sitting there wondering which direction to run… silly little things happen that really make it all okay.

Meet Chicken II…

Chicken II is the great-great-great-great-grandturtle of Chicken I, however since we’re not sure how many “greats” belong in there, and we haven’t seen Chickens in a few years, we decided to name her Chicken II. Okay, I need to explain why I’m calling turtles chickens now, don’t I?

When I was a little girl, we had this turtle that would come to the front yard from the creek across the street. She’d find a nice spot in the landscaping (and even one time under my dad’s car, in the gravel driveway) and would lay a whole mess of eggs. I’d sit there and watch her for hours… it was the coolest thing my young eyes had seen.

Of course, being the animal loving freak that I am, whenever Chicken was done, she’d cross the street and go back into the creek… but I’d be worried about her making it all that way without a car coming through and taking her life. So I’d walk with her. I’ve stopped more cars that come flying down the street so they didn’t hit my sluggish friend… one older man once got out and yelled at me, and then went up to the door and yelled at my parents!

In any event, it became the joke around the house… “Why did the chicken cross the road? To lay eggs in the Kulpa’s yard, of course!” We had even convinced the mayor of the village to erect signs resembling the deer crossing signs you see… only with a silhouette of a turtle, instead of a deer! There was one sign on either side of our property line… It was so cool…

So back to Chicken II…

I noticed her crawling through the driveway and followed her as she headed toward the street. I looked for trails, wondering where she’d been, where she came from, but I saw none. She had a leech on her back leg that I tried to remove with a stick, only to later remember table salt, and regretted not having used it. She was covered in swampy moss and mud, as any glamorous turtle would be, and then I saw this…

Chicken II is missing her left eye. She’s trucking along, like any proud turtle would do… and she’s missing an eye. It looked like it’d been poked out by something, and just healed up and she’s all good to go. It made me feel like I was sneaking up on her though… so I wound up switching sides a lot because I was trying to get some good shots of her.

We hung out in the driveway for a while, before she decided that she needed a break and some rest in the shade…

That’s my dad’s van… later she moved to underneath my car. And no, she didn’t lay eggs anywhere this visit… more on that later.

I was leaving to meet a friend for dinner and I was concerned of course, about Chicken II being under my car, so I had my father help me navigate around her. When I came home, I was sure she’d have been back under my father’s van but I couldn’t find her.

I walked around the house to see if she went to the creek in the woods behind our property. No trails, no Chicken.

I walked across the front of the house, looked under some big pine trees, into the neighbor’s yard, and under some lilac bushes. No trails, no Chicken.

I even checked across the street, to see if I could see her in the banks of the creek, and there was nothing. No trails, no Chicken.

So I came in and my father had left me a note:

Ra,
Chicken II hung around for a little while, then slowly scratched her way to the street. I watched over her as she turtle scurried her way to the other side, then slid her way down to the creek. She swam away with a smile on her face and memories of a nice day at the Kulpa’s with a long nap under your car.
Love, Dad

Ahh, the joys of taking life a little slower. Sometimes we all need to be reminded that we don’t have to “do something” (like laying eggs) but rather it’s more important to be finding some nice shade and taking a nap on a hot day is what’s going to put smiles on our faces. That there’s nothing at all wrong with just taking… life… a little… slower. No matter what you’ve been through in the past.

See ya next year, Chicken II! Thanks for the lesson, you wise old gal…

[All images © Lara Kulpa. All rights reserved, may not use without permission.]